Editor's Note: Secret Warriors #5 arrives in stores tomorrow, June 24.

The first time I saw Stefano Caselli's work was back on Avengers: The Initiative, and I was blown away. In fact, I'm just going to cut and paste what I said back then, because it's still word-for-word accurate:

"Caselli and Rudoni are doing stellar work here. The mechanics of facial expressions and body language, as well as Caselli's generally impressive take on costuming and setting, make this a joy to look at. Heavier line work sets off the characters from their backgrounds, and the people seem to be inserted into sets illustrated with a softer focus. This lets the backgrounds establish themselves with a fairly high level of detail without overwhelming the scene, letting the characters and their interactions remain the focus of each panel."

Yup. Still holds.

The soft-focus backgrounds aren't as prominent as they were then, but there's still a fantastic sense of depth to every panel. And although there are quite a few large panels and 2-page spreads, the action flows smoothly and dramatically with no feeling of wasted space. The pacing and timing is almost perfect, and while there is a moment or two in this issue's GIGANTIC battle where we lose track of what's happening, it doesn't detract from the chaos of the three-sided conflict.

I really just can't get over how good this book looks.

And I want to go on record saying that The Hive is one of the most disturbing villains I've seen in quite some time. Not "genital-mutilation disturbing" like Pyg, over in Grant Morrison's new Batman and Robin, but "spewing polypy squid-things from the palms of his hands into the faces of his enemies" disturbing.

And the writing? This month is mostly focused on orchestrating the GIGANTIC battle between the Howling Commandos, H.A.M.M.E.R., and HYDRA so don't go looking for a lot of character work. We start quietly inside the H.A.M.M.E.R. base and move smoothly into a large-scale 2-page spread, then pull back 24 hours for a glimpse of the Howling Commandos' prep before being dumped head-first into a massive action set-piece. Then, just before HYDRA enters the fray, Hickman allows another brief pause to flash back to their preparations.

After that, it's non-stop panel-bursting mayhem with a surprise (but not exactly unexpected) death or two and a very dramatic final 2-page spread that leads us directly into another shift in the balance of power for the next issue.

There's really only one misstep with this issue: a surprise death that is just a bit too cliche to enjoy, but aside from that, Hickman is crafting one of the best Nick Fury adventures to ever see print. He's taken HYDRA, which was pretty much a joke these days, and turned them back into the serious threat they were always intended to be.

It's nice to not only see Fury being written so strongly, but to have Dum-Dum back along with a revitalized Baron Strucker. Now, if Hickman can actually make me care about the Secret Warriors themselves, I'll be truly impressed. Is the reason this issue works so well because the kids aren't really in it at all? Could be.

Regardless, this is another impressive issue rebuilding a part of the Marvel Universe that has been sorely lacking over the last few years. That's Marvel's spy/espionage wing, in case you were wondering. Captain America cannot do all the heavy lifting in this genre.

---

What did you think of this book?
Have your say at the Line of Fire Forum!

---